In honor of Susanne Jensen‘s 49th birthday yesterday, I finally digitized the only recording of her that I have.
Susanne’s Last Call – 7/17/1996
She tried calling me from TWA’s Galaxy Club at JFK Int’l Airport before boarding TWA Flight 800 for Paris. I missed her call, and it went to our answering machine. The quality of this recording isn’t great–it has been stored on the machine’s mini cassette for the last 18 years. I tried to reduce the background hum a little without distorting her voice. We were nine days from buying our first house together, and the message is mostly about the impending closing. I mention this recording in my memoir 13,760 Feet–My Personal Hole in the Sky. It’s my last physical connection to her, and then I speculate her remaining moments in the first chapter. Putting those thoughts about the exploding flight on paper was among the hardest things I ever did (on par with speaking in front of 700 people at her memorial service). My memoir’s first chapter was one of the last that I wrote–with the assistance of my grad school program (Fairfield University’s MFA). I couldn’t begin my story about her until after I’d already mostly finished it. In case you haven’t read it yet, here’s my link to the page that contains Chapter 1 as it appeared in Airways magazine in the August 2013 issue, as well as a 15-minute audio version in case you prefer to listen to me read it to you:
Chapter 1 – TWA Flight 800 (click here)
Susanne was an amazing and beautiful woman. I know she touched a lot of great people who will never forget her.
Joe Lynch says
Mark, Great you saved her call! It literally puts a voice for her and your book!
Steven DeGiorgio says
Mark Im soo glad you did this,especially on her birthday,she will live for ever11
Karlene says
Mark, this is so touching. She will always live because of your keeping her memory alive. Happy Birthday Susanne!